Gleason's Sporting World: Rob Ryan should pipe down like brother Rex

Points to ponder while wondering if Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan is trying to pick up the slack from his brother low-keying it this season.

Kevin Gleason

Points to ponder while wondering if Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan is trying to pick up the slack from his brother low-keying it this season.

Rob is pretty sure the Cowboys are going to hand the Falcons their first loss on Sunday night. In fact he's guaranteeing it.

Perhaps it's not easy with those long locks of his, but Ryan might need his head examined for guaranteeing anything with that team.

Ryan's reasoning? Well, "We need to win now,'' and the football has been "bouncing strange ways'' for the Cowboys this season.

Indeed, that darn ball has bounced out of Tony Romo's hands and into those of defensive players 15 times this season (13 interceptions, two fumbles).

Darn ball! I wish they would stop making it so slippery for Dallas players. The Cowboys are 31st of 32 in turnover margin with a minus-11.

If Antrel Rolle does indeed have no idea if he suffered a concussion against Dallas last week, as he says, then somebody needs to explain exactly what kind of an injury he sustained.

Because in the era of supposed scrutiny over NFL concussions, getting "dinged,'' as Rolle put it, does little to explain the extent of the injury.

He either suffered a concussion or didn't suffer a concussion. If he did, and he's not telling, then Rolle is feeding into the macho NFL culture partly responsible for long-term, head-related health issues in the first place.

Rolle's injury came three weeks after Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III suffered one of those "mild'' concussions — mild brain injury, really? — and played the next week.

So Rolle is cleared to play without knowing if he suffered a concussion, and Griffin played a week after suffering one.

But the NFL insists it is doing everything necessary to prevent long-term damage from head injuries. Got it.

I can't believe the Chiefs have a minus-20 turnover margin. It is almost inconceivable that a team would turn over the ball 20 times more than its number of forced turnovers through eight games.

Yes, the Chiefs are 32nd and last in the league in turnover margin.

The Giants and Patriots are tied for the league lead with plus-13s.

When is TNT, or any other network, going to spare us the in-game interview with clearly disinterested coaches, in this case Spurs coach Gregg Popovich?

Memo to TNT: He understandably despises being interviewed during work hours. Unless TNT has no issue with its employees being bothered while working, say Pop bursting onto the pre-game set for an unscripted repartee, perhaps the network can kill in-game interviews before Pop uses the mic as an assault weapon.

I keep waiting for Andy Reid to do something with that moustache.

Something else, I should say.

We have come upon the only accurate measurement for NFL normalcy: There is talk of Norv Turner getting fired.

Is it too late for Oklahoma City to get a re-do on the James Harden deal?

Is it too early to wonder if there is only one good team in the NFC East?

Roger Goodell better be right about the Saints' guilt in bounty gate, because he has effectively ruined the team's season.

Notice all the players vehemently opposed to the NBA's new anti-flopping rule are well-honed floppers?

Does this mean the Yankees were only eight playoff games worse than the Giants?

Dwyane Wade was right: Knicks-Heat should have been postponed on Friday night.

For all the well-earned criticism Mayor Bloomberg took for initially planning to hold the New York City Marathon, folks were generally fine with an NBA game on Broadway while folks desperately tried to recover from Hurricane Sandy.

Sure, the NBA game didn't require an extended time frame like the marathon, and certainly not the hotel space needed to house thousands of runners. But much of lower and midtown Manhattan remained without power on Friday. Many storm victims needed immediate relief without the glib celebration of an NBA season opener in the background.

Bloomberg ultimately made the right call on the marathon, even if it took being brow-beaten by roughly 10 million people for him to make the decision. But Knicks-Heat was a shorter version of the marathon. You can't tell me the game brought more joy and goodwill to storm victims than what would have been produced by 40,000 people gutting it out for 26.2 miles.

The game should have been canceled along with the marathon.

Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez can't, for the life of him, understand why the national media hasn't fawned over his 7-0 team like they would "if it was Philly, Green Bay or New England.''

Hmmm, let me see if I can find any reasons. ...

Let's see ... Does it, perhaps, have anything to do with the Falcons not winning a playoff game in eight years, getting embarrassed by the Giants, 24-2, in their most recent postseason appearance last season and losing to Green Bay by 27 in the divisional playoffs the year before last after finishing 13-3?

Think that has anything to do with it?

kgleason@th-record.com;

Twitter: @th_KevinGleason

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